The Pain of Loss
by Namii Levee
Summary: Gaara and his siblings travel to the city after their farm is bought by landowners. There, they work to keep themselves alive. Will Gaara and Temari be able to survive together? Or will they each die a horrific death like Kankuro?


**This is something I did for my Modern World History class when we were given the assignment of writing a story for the Industrial Revolution. If it sounds a bit out of character, I'm sorry. I couldn't make the characters in character for my own reasons, and the maximum amount of pages was FOUR!! As for the names, I decided to use the Sand Siblings because I like them all! Enjoy and review, good or bad! **

**P.S. My teacher said that he liked their names!**

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TITLE: The Pain of Loss

**AUTHOR: **Daniela Gallego

**STORY RATING: **PG-13 (for some swearing)

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **To Mr. Calero & company, hope you enjoy!

**Prologue**

Twelve-year old Gaara was one of the very many people that moved to the city during the time of urbanization. For three months, they lived in a very filthy apartment with only one chamber pot for a toilet, and worked very long hours in either a factory or a coal mine with very little breaks. The working and living conditions were very unbearable and dangerous, and disease was often spread. This is the story of Gaara, a boy so desperate to prove himself that he was willing to give up his life in the process of showing that he could do what his siblings thought he couldn't do…

**Present **

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, and breathe out… who knew that breathing could be so hard? Breathe in; breathe out…every breath felt like a knife was cutting my lungs, it hurt so much. I tried reaching towards my throat, but wasn't able to move any part of my body; my disease had spread so quickly. Anger bubbled within me at the thought of it.

My disease, the stupid little infection that I caught only a few weeks ago has remained unknown. The illness that has kept me paralyzed for the last three days. _Hmph, at least Kankuro and Temari had realized heroic deaths…from saving me from the coal mines and the machine's conveyor belt_, I thought sadly. It was all my fault…

**Summer 1840**

"Are we there yet?" I asked impatiently as I flicked my sister for the fifth time.

She turned towards me and shouted, "No Gaara! We are not there yet. So stop asking." I could hear my brother chuckling at my impatience. I sighed. I was so sick of being on the road, and all because the wealthy landowners bought our land for its rich and fertile soil. Before we agreed to sell, they told us that there was a city nearby where we could go to find work. Before I could even say no, Temari packed our stuff and Kankuro threw me into the wagon and off we went! I've hated them ever since. The air was hot and made me dizzy, and I was soon asleep.

I slept for what seemed like only a few minutes, until I felt something poking me on the shoulder. Opening one eye, I saw Kankuro looking at me in a weird way. I asked, "What is it?"

"You sure can sleep a lot. You slept right through the entire journey to the city. Temari made me carry you inside our apartment."

"We're here?"

"Exactly."

I looked around the room to find it a complete mess. It was just a single room with trash strewn everywhere, and with only three chamber pots that I supposed were supposed to be used for our toilets. It was an unappealing thought. This wasn't going to be the way I lived, not in this filthy place, whether the people in charge liked it or not. Before I could protest, Temari came into the room holding three documents. She looked absolutely angry about something.

Kankuro asked, "What are those? Newspapers? Information sheets?" She turned towards him and smacked him right on the head.

"No, fool, these are our papers to show that we are eligible for the work we will do," she said heatedly, "I was able to get work in the factory for me and Gaara, but for you, it was a different matter. You're going to be working in the coal mines instead."

"What?! But you can die in there!" Kankuro shouted and his older sister who simply shrugged and said nothing more. "Damn it!" He turned to me, "Why do you always get the clean jobs?" I just shrugged my shoulders.

The next day, we woke up at 5:30 in the morning, ate a few slices of bread for breakfast, and walked to the factory. Once there, an overseer led us to the manager's office, where we were checked for any disabilities. Temari checked out okay, but at the sight of me, the manager laughed.

"We're letting this little shrimp work in the factory? There is no way!" He pointed at me and just laughed. I felt anger in the pit of my stomach. Here was another person who teased me because of my height. So what if I was shorter than Kankuro or Temari?!

Finally, he ruffled my hair and said, "Kid, you better be a hell of a good worker." And with that, my sister and I were led into the factory and to a big machine. The overseer told Temari that her job was to continuously spin the thread into yarn needed for making clothing, and after a few tries she easily spun the thread into yarn. The overseer then told me that my job was to carry a thirty-five pound sack full of fresh yarn next to the manager's office, that way he could keep count of how much he should pay us. The sack was very heavy at first, but then suddenly got lighter as I carried more. For the rest of the day, my sister and I had fun with our new jobs.

When the bell signaled the end of work, Temari turned off her machine and I placed the last sack of yarn on top of previous one, and together we walked back home. Kankuro was already waiting there for us, his face covered in black coal dust. He seemed very weary and said nothing. He simply coughed. During dinner, he looked at me and said that I would never become a good worker. The next morning, we each went to our place of work and did not see each other until work was over. I found that spending a day without Kankuro saying that I would never be a good worker was heaven.

Days became weeks, weeks became months, and Kankuro's coughing did not get any better. He seemed weaker too, and hardly ever spoke to us. I then noticed that Temari seemed to become tired as well with the long work hours and the constant sound of spinning yarn around her. I soon grew muscular from carrying the once very heavy sacks filled with yarn, and received compliments from everyone. I loved the work I did and looked forward to it everyday, but the one day I really looked forward to was two days away--my birthday. I would turn twelve.

Finally my birthday arrived. I was so happy that I decided to skip a day of work and visit my brother in the coal mines. Temari barely listened as I spoke to her and told me to have fun. I raced over to the mines and asked one of the overseers for my brother. The overseer glared at me and smacked me across the face. Then he pulled out a whip and unwrapped it from around his neck. "You should be at work in the factory, not here." He said menacingly as he raised the whip up high.

As I waited for the feeling of the leather whip on my flesh, I heard a shout and a crash. I opened my eyes and looked up into the dark eyes of Kankuro.

"Gaara, what are you doing here?" he demanded.

I said shakily, "I wanted to see you on my birthday. We hardly ever see you at…" But I never got to finish the sentence. There was a rumbling in the cave as we felt vibrations. Suddenly, the ceiling began splitting apart as large chunks of rock and stone fell upon us. We raced towards the exit, and when we where almost there, I felt Kankuro give me a hard shove that made me fall over. When I managed to pull myself up, I turned around expecting to see my brother frowning and saying that I was stupid to visit him, but encountered a sight that would haunt me forever. My brother was buried beneath a large boulder unable to move and bleeding badly. There was nothing I could do for him… because he was dead.

I winced as Temari slapped my face in both anger and hysteria. She was very angry with me for skipping work and visiting Kankuro. The overseers brought me back to the factory to my sister, who punished me roughly. When she was done, she walked back to her machine and continued spinning yarn. I went back to my job of hauling sacks.

For the next few days, my life was a living hell. Temari had assumed Kankuro's addage of me never becoming a good worker and criticized me everyday about his death. Worse to come, she made me work even longer hours. I now only received three hours of sleep at the most. Dark circles now framed my blue eyes and my red hair was now lifeless. I grew thinner as well, since we hardly got any breaks. The days seemed longer and were no longer cheerful since the death of Kankuro, and Temari blamed me every chance she got. I thought she did not care about me any more, but she was my only living relative.

On one particular day, my sister spun much more yarn than usual and I had to make several trips to the manager's office. He no longer smiled at me. I was very tired because I did not get much sleep the night before. As I carried a fresh sack of thread back to the machine, I closed my eyes and felt shaky. A rough hand pushed me away as there was a loud snap and a sickening crunching sound. I opened my eyes quickly and saw Temari lying lifeless on the floor; blood trickled out of her mouth. I could feel my heart stop as I looked at her, then I passed out.

I woke up at the feeling of a whip on my back. The overseer shouted me to get back to work. Temari's body was gone; apparently, from what I heard from the others, the conveyor belt on a nearby machine had snapped and was about to hit me when a brave girl jumped in and took the blow. The conveyor belt ended up breaking her ribs and ruptured her internal organs, and she had died immediately. The manager considered her a hero for saving the boy's life, as was the boy who died in the coal mines for doing the same thing.

Work was now hell without Temari or Kankuro. Eighteen-hour days were now hell. I never slept anymore because of the nightmares of the deaths of my siblings, and my long work hours. I overworked myself hard, and I ended up getting sick. I was allowed to stay home while I recovered, but my living conditions just made me worse. My head hurt constantly, I could barely move, and scarcely ate. A doctor came to examine me during my second week of my sickness and revealed to me that I was diagnosed with a whole new illness. He said I would be unable to work again. I was going to die a slow and painful death.

**Present**

I coughed and coughed until blood came up with my saliva. My throat felt sore and parched. The end of my life was near, and my body knew it, too. I tried to concentrate on breathing one more time, but my lungs would not function. They were just like I was, used up and needed to be rid of. I sighed painfully; even sighing hurt.

_Okay then, maybe I was never a good worker. Maybe I won't have a heroic death like my siblings, and maybe I will be done in by an illness_, I thought lightly, _either way it beats being killed by a conveyor belt or a heavy boulder. And it's less painful to die this way._

I shuddered as I took my last breath, and then slowly closed my eyes to the welcoming darkness of death.


End file.
